Insomniac: Starting a new IP “at the very beginning can be gut-wrenching”

Insomniac’s Ted Price has said that while creating a new, unproven IP can be “gut-wrenching” at the start, it’s also an “opportunity” to create a game the team is excited about without the inherent “baggage” associated with an established IP.

Speaking in an interview with Gamasutra, Price owning the IP to its multiplatform co-op game Overstrike also give the studio “pull over what it becomes,” and since the firm is starting it from scratch, it can “take it any direction we want.”

“And that’s always a great moment,” he said. “It’s always a difficult moment, too, when you’re trying to find out what your new IP is. That’s the challenge we’ve set for ourselves over the year.

“We want to continue to create new IP, and going through that process at the very beginning can be gut-wrenching, because you’re making big bets on new stories, new characters and new game mechanics that may be unproven.

“We wonder about the potential audience for each of the new IPs we come with. But along the way, we’re never afraid to tweak that to make sure that what we’re making is what gamers would want to play.”

The last two new IPs Insomniac released were the Spyro and the Resistance franchise, both of which are owned by each IP’s respective publisher, Activision and Sony.

Price said Insomniac could have kept creating new entries in both franchises, but made the decision to stop once each reached a “logical conclusion,” thus allowing the firm to move on to something new, and hopefully, something just as big.

Overstrike was announced during E3 2011 as a first-person, four-player co-op shooter in development through EA Partners. A release window has yet to be announced.